From the NBC Archives: In this archival footage, President Ronald Reagan raises questions about whether or not Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was a Communist sympathizer. These remarks provoked an immediate backlash from members of Congress, the late Sen.Ted Kennedy and Dr. King’s widow, the late Coretta Scott King. When Reagan was asked to clarify his statements, he chose to decline and laid low at a country club where no blacks or women were allowed to be members.
WATCH PRESIDENT REAGAN QUESTION MLK’S CONNECTIONS TO COMMUNISM:
For more stories on the history of the civil rights movement, visit NBC Learn.